Doom 3 Gets Info On Demo, Linux, DVD, Xbox

Eeknay writes "Following up yesterday's announcement about Doom 3 going Gold, id software today went into specifics on a Doom 3 demo and a Linux version of the full game, saying: 'We will release the demo as soon as it's done, but this probably won't happen until after the game has arrived on U.S. store shelves', and adding: 'Linux binaries will be available very soon after the PC game hits store shelves. There are no plans for boxed Linux games.'." Eurogamer also has a handy round-up of other Doom 3 news, noting, via CNN Money, that "Doom will apparently ship exclusively on CD", quoting Todd Hollenshead as saying of the Xbox version: "We can't say, at this point, that it's going to come out this year", and relaying on game length: "the [PC Gamer paper-mag] reviewer claims it took 23 hours to complete."

Comments

Doom 3 demo.

[Eeknay]

I still don't understand why more and more game companies push back demos to after the retail release; I want a demo to decide whether or not I want to buy your game. The sooner you give that to me, the sooner I buy your game. Simple.

Re:Doom 3 demo.

[NanoGator]

'I still don't understand why more and more game companies push back demos to after the retail release; I want a demo to decide whether or not I want to buy your game. The sooner you give that to me, the sooner I buy your game. Simple."

The problem is they already have a line of people ready to buy the game. Screw you, they're thinking, get to the people who are already sold.

Re:Doom 3 demo.

[shaka999]

For a highly anticipated game it probably makes more sense to release the game and follow with the demo.

For a game that doesn't have public recognition it would be just the opposite.

If you game is already getting the press that DOOM3 is then getting a demo out early would be more likely to keep people from buying the game than to encourage them to buy the game. I know this has worked on me several times. I go buy a hyped game and find out it sucks later. If there had been a demo I wouldn't have made the purchase.

Now, if nobody knows anything about you or your game getting a demo out may help people pay for the whole version.

Just my 2 cents....

Re:Doom 3 demo.

[kannibal_klown]

It depends on a lot of things.

Most people have already stated the obvious: a demo isn't really needed when a game has as much hype and fans as DOOM 3. They know they have those people locked into a sale.

But demos can hurt a game in many ways. For examples:

Deus Ex II: Invisible War - the demo showed everyone how sucky the game was. Poor performance, dummied-down concepts (hacking anyone), small maps, and weak relation to the original. It probably hurt sales, as some of those that were foaming at the mouth probably changed their minds or waited to get it as a gift for the holidays.

Ground Control II - they shot themselves in the foot with the demo. The demo is great! The game is great! One problem - the demo had so much content in it that nobody bought the friggin game. Hordes of people are still on the demo servers, as the only thing they are missing out on is a few maps. Only a small number of people are on the retail servers.

Between the time and funds that ned to go into fixing up a demo, it's more cost effective to get the interested early-birds to buy the games. You demo will do little to make them want it more.

The ones that will buy it later, let them hear about the polished game and then try the demo later.

Duh, what me work for PC Gamer

[hambonewilkins]

the [PC Gamer paper-mag] reviewer claims it took 23 hours to complete.

Having read PC Gamer, I believe it.

Seriously, though, it's widely assumed that PC Gamer reviewed a non-shipping preview version of the game, which seems pretty shady to me. Though similar to the final version, the games are likely to have SOME differences. After all, Ebert doesn't review rough cuts of films, does he?

Re:Duh, what me work for PC Gamer

[Quarters]

After all, Ebert doesn't review rough cuts of films, does he?

No, but Ebert doesn't write magazine based reviews. He writes newspaper reviews and does television shows.

Magazines typically have a 75-90 day lead time. No game magazine in their right mind is going to review a finished game knowing that it won't be out on the stands for a full 3 months. They'd constantly be scooped by the game oriented internet sites and TV shows.

Re:Duh, what me work for PC Gamer

[sweede]

working in a magazine printing plant, we are printing up september issues of several magazines that shipping date is in a week or two.

why magazines do this? i havent a clue. but the month on the issue means absolute squat.

after the research is done for a magazine, it can be put together quickly in a couple days or a week.

Re:Multiple Binaries on CD

[Zed2K]

Why should they delay the windows version just so that people that run OS's that are such a small percentage of the population should be able to play at the same time?

It would be more convenient for linux and OSX users but not for Id or anyone else.

Re:Monitoring demand

[GeckoX]

STFU Troll, you as a linux user (or osx) are getting a good deal hear and you know it. Anyone that buys the boxed game, which is required to play the game on ANY platform, gives you access to play it on ANY platform they release binaries for in the future. This would include linux and OSX binaries apparantly in the VERY near future.

Do NOT turn this into yet another "poor us linux users abused again" argument, especially whey you're targeting it at one of the very few game companies that even give a flying fuck about linux.

You should be happy for chrissakes that you a) will even be able to play it on linux and b) that should you for some reason want to install it on both linux and windows (to prove how much better it is on linux of course, or whatever floats your boat) WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY FOR IT TWICE!

I know, I'm feeding the troll but I couldn't let that crap go without saying _something_.

Re:Monitoring demand

[BinLadenMyHero]

Maybe cause it was released late, when all Linux quakers already bought the Windows box and downloaded the Linux executable.

Speed Demo People

[-=[Dr. AJAX]=-]

"Bah", I say to the alleged 23 hour completion time. Speed Demo people, I expect to see a 1 hr 37 min demo (maximum, of course) one week after Doom 3 hits the shelves.

Re:Speed Demo People

[Radix37]

OK, please buy me a new computer and I'll get right on it!

Re:Impressive

[Quarters]

The XBox version is being done at Vicarious Visions in Albany, NY.

Re:Does that inclide...

[Quinn]

I don't understand you people. Do you play for fifteen hours at a time? Maybe before a wife and a baby I could have done that, but not now. Many RPG claim "forty hours gameplay," but I've played for that duration spread over a single week and haven't passed more than their midpoints.

Re:Impressive

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Epic Games, creator of Unreal Tournament 2004, shipped a Linux version of UT2003 and UT2004 on the same CDs (or DVDs) as the Windows version.

A mac port and XBox port (Unreal Championship) are also available for UT2003.

Re:Multiple Binaries on CD

[Zed2K]

You are making a ton of assumptions about the setup of their development. I would think that doom 3 would be a lot more complex then an office application.

Only Carmack would be able to answer for sure, but I bet each new engine has brand new code that needs to be written for each OS. It is never just a simple matter of copying the code to the new OS and compiling it there and fixing a few specific problems.

Re:Multiple Binaries on CD

[EnglishTim]

Truly spoken like someone who has never written a commercial game.

People often seem to assume that if you write an OpenGl game, there'll be very little work in making a port for another OS. That may be the case if you're writing some free thing that you can download from Sourceforge but when people are actually paying for a product, there's this little thing called 'Quality Assurance' that gets in the way.

Basically, as well as porting your program over, you'd have to test it on a wide variety of machines for all the distributions you support. This takes a long time whatever OS you're running. You've also then got to fix all those niggly little isses while at the same time ensuring you don't break the setup for any of the other machine/graphics card/driver/distribution combinations you've got.

It's easy to say it's easy - it's not easy to do it.